The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 12
CH. 1 3. "The Merciful,³ 6. The phrase AL-FATIHAH the b. Gracious, "25:61; 26:6; 41:3; 55:2; 59:23. 33:44; 36:59. الرَّحْمُرِ ن الرَّحِيمِ (Lord of all the worlds) also points out that as things which grow, develop and change cannot do so by themselves, so is all life subject to God's lordship. The phrase further points to a law of evolution in the world, that things undergo development and that this development is progressive and is brought about in stages, Rabb being the One Who makes things grow and develop by stages. The verse also points out that the Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. principle of evolution is not 3. Important Words: inconsistent with belief in God. On the contrary, the progressive deve- lopment of things makes creation all the more marvellous and God all the more deserving of praise. It must, however, be noted that the process of evolution referred to here is not identical with the theory of evolution as ordinarily understood; the expression is used here only in a general sense. going to bestow a universal revelation upon the world. When separate Prophets were raised for separate nations, ignorant people, not understanding the purpose of God, rejected the Prophets of other nations; but, with the advent of Islam, one Prophet and one religion were given to all mankind, and the different peoples inhabiting the world-white, yellow, brown and black-were all invited to sing one common hymn in praise of For the meanings of the words Ar-Raḥmān and Ar-Raḥīm see note under 1:1. Commentary: In the verse Bismillah the attributes of Ar-Raḥmān and Ar-Rahim serve as a key to the meaning of the chapter at the head of which they have been placed. Their mention here in the third verse serves an additional purpose. Here they are used as a link between the attribute of which راب which مالك يوم الدين the | precedes and that of 7. Again, the verse points to the fact that man has been created for unlimited progress, because phrase✓ implies that God develops everything from a lower to a higher stage, and this can be true only if there is a stage beyond every stage in a never-ending process. 8. Finally, by putting the verse follows them. As we have seen, the phrase (Lord of all the worlds) also implies that after creating things, God leads them progressively to higher stages of development. In the words and ,occurring in the present verse الرحيم | in the very beginning of الحمد الله رب العالمين the Quran, a declaration is made that the time of separate revelations has come to an end, and that God is now 12 light is thrown on the process of that development. The word Ar-Raḥmān means that God not only provides all